At this point, Donald Trump faces four separate indictments, 91 felony charges, and a current maximum sentence of 696.5 years in prison. Which sounds like a good start.
But in addition to his tax fraud, theft of classified documents, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, there’s another big area of concern where Trump currently faces no charges. As The Guardian reported back in June of 2022, Trump not only raked in $250 million by whining to his followers about how the “witch hunt” was out to get him, he claimed to be stashing that money away in a “election defense fund” that never existed.
Now, the 18 co-defendants in Georgia and three co-defendants in Florida would like some of that cash to deal with their own, very real, legal concerns. But that’s not happening.
On Monday, Jenna Ellis, former Trump attorney and current host of the “Jenna Ellis Show on X,” took to social media to express clear displeasure and a none-too-subtle threat.
Ellis certainly isn’t the only one with her hand out. Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Rudy Giuliani repeatedly tried to get Trump to part with some cash. In Giuliani’s case, he isn’t looking for a gift at the moment. He only wants Trump to pay the bills Giuliani has turned in since he signed on to help Trump in the scheme to smear President Joe Biden, run Trump’s legal team during its long losing streak following the election, play a major role in the efforts to overturn the results through illegal means. Trump reportedly owes Giuliani “millions.”
Giuliani reportedly hired his own attorney to try and recover some of that money. That didn’t work. Then he went to Trump and “made personal appeals to the former president” both at Mar-a-Lago and at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club. That didn’t work, either. Neither did having Giuliani’s son pay a visit to Trump in New Jersey, though Trump did promise that at some point he would attend a pair of fundraisers for Giuliani. Which hasn’t happened so far.
Ellis and Giuliani are learning what hundreds of carpenters, cabinet makers, plumbers, dishwashers, painters, bartenders, and supposed “friends” have learned before: Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills. According to PBS, Trump’s PAC recently put out $40 million in legal fees to defend Trump. But the outlay to defend anyone else—from his former chief of staff to the guy who helps him select those extra-long ties—is bupkis.
Somehow, all these people thought they were on “Team Trump.” But Trump is, and always was, a solo act.
Right now, Ellis’ social media feed is full of appeals for cash. However, the amounts raised don’t look to be even close to what Ellis and others will need as they look forward to months of legal preparation for the Georgia case.
By a total lack of coincidence, Trump raking in $250 million in 2022 for his nonexistent fund was followed by a sharp decline in Republican small-dollar donations. Rather than seeing the usual bump as the 2022 midterms approached, Republicans actually saw the numbers go down.
As The New York Times reported, total online donations dropped by 12% “across all federal Republican campaigns and committees.”
“Some Republicans blamed inflation. Some blamed tech platforms. Others accused certain campaigns and committees—in particular the highly aggressive Trump operation—of simply overfishing and polluting a limited donor pool for everyone.”
The millionaires and billionaires still cut enough checks to Republican PACs to prevent the 2022 election from being a total disaster … but it was still a pretty big disaster, and by the time it was over, they knew who to blame. As Laura Clawson reported, what was troubling Republicans was absolutely “a Trump problem.”
Now Trump’s co-defendants have a Trump problem times 41 counts and a RICO indictment that could guarantee they all see jail time. Trump didn’t pay them what he owes them, he’s not offering to help with their legal bills, and the evidence against many of them is enough to have even Perry Mason throw in the towel.
They’re begging for help from all those Trump voters who cheered them on back when Ellis, Giuliani, and the rest were giving press conferences at landscaping firms, promising to provide evidence of election fraud that doesn’t exist. But Trump voters don’t care. Trump voters trust Trump more than they trust their own families, but that trust extends to no one else. No one. When you serve a cult leader, the cult leader benefits, and you … who are you again?
In addition to begging, Ellis and the rest have one other alternative when it comes to dealing with their big legal woes: They can make a deal with Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, plead guilty to reduced charges, and provide additional evidence against Trump.
That possibility really should concern Trump. He may be currently facing 17 counts on the Georgia indictment, but there is plenty of time for his co-defendants to get into an “oh, yeah? Well, here’s something he did that’s even worse!” game of self-defense one-upmanship.
That’s exactly why RICO charges carry that mandatory sentence, because prosecutors know such a threat will bring the little fishes swarming out to feed on offers of deals. And with 18 co-defendants sharing Trump’s hot water, Willis’ fishing season is likely to be a good one.
Trump may not recognize the danger. More likely, he sees the threat but it only makes him more determined to sit on the pile of cash he extracted from people who think he’s the second coming of sliced bread. After all, any threat to testify against Trump is disloyalty. Trump hates disloyalty. Especially among the people he refused to pay and left twisting in the wind after they put their careers on the line for him.
